The Essei found the Cri themselves to be simple: creatures of instinct, closer to animals than to the Cogum of Essei. What held the Essei was what lived alongside them.

The Criwy (pronounced Cree-why) is an organism native to Cri. It attaches to the head of a Cri and places its appendages into the ears, and from there it moves the body as its own. The Cri body is the more capable vessel. The Criwy is what animates it.

Together they had built civilizations the Essei could not explain: esoteric in their order, and to Essei eyes, without pattern.